Penn to establish first office of religious and ethnic inclusion following Title VI investigation

The University of Pennsylvania announced it is establishing the first-ever office of religious and ethnic inclusion after the school played host to some of the most well-known anti- Israel campus demonstrations since the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack.

The move was announced by interim President J. Larry Jameson, who replaced former President Liz Magill after she resigned following congressional testimony in which she refused to say whether calls for genocide against Jews violated school policy, calling it a matter of “context.”

“Over the past year, our campus and our country witnessed a disquieting surge in antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of religious and ethnic intolerance,” Jameson said. “This type of prejudice is simply unacceptable, and has no place at Penn.”

He added that the Office of Religious and Ethnic Inclusion “is being formed to confront this deeply troubling trend, and to serve as a stand-alone center for education and complaint resolution. It represents an institutional commitment to address both the short-term and long-term recommendations that we have received.”

The office is expected to open during the fall semester and will be co-led by Majid Alsayegh and Steve Ginsburg while the school searches for long-term leadership. Alsayegh serves on the national Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council, while Ginsburg is a former Anti-Defamation League executive.

The Office of Religious and Ethnic Inclusion is being formed to protect the civil rights of campus community members, particularly those of Jewish descent who were subject to a hostile education environment that groups such as StandWithUs, the ADL, and the Brandeis Center say violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The new office will be the “sole, University-wide point of contact for receiving and responding to reports of alleged violations of our policies against religious and ethnic discrimination, and will be designed to ensure that investigations happen swiftly and thoroughly,” according to Jameson.

In 2023, the Brandeis Center filed a Title VI complaint against the school for allegedly nurturing a hostile environment against Jewish students and failing to protect them from harassment. If the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights finds evidence of Title VI violations, the Biden administration may choose to withhold federal funding . This is the gunpowder to the Title VI threat, but it requires an administration willing to pull the trigger.

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With the establishment of this first-of-a-kind office, Penn is attempting to comply with Title VI while signaling a change in how antisemitism is handled on campus. Former President Donald Trump has vowed to come down hard on schools fostering antisemitic environments, and as he aims to reoccupy the Oval Office, other schools may follow Penn’s lead to prevent punitive measures from being taken.

The Washington Examiner reached out to the University of Pennsylvania for comment.